0 
0 


Z932 
H 153 


Shakespeare-Autotype  committee  at 
Stratford-nn-Avon 


THE 


at  ^tratfari-0n-^l)on. 


TRANSFORMATION    SCENES. 


AND    A    RETROSPECT. 


THE     SEConsrnD     exditiojst- 


What  I  gather  clearly  from  all  this,  quoth  Sancho,  is  that  these 
adventures  will,  in  the  long  run,  bring  us  into  so  many  disventures  that 
we  shall  not  know  which  is  our  right  foot. — Tfie  Life  and  Adventures  of 
Don  Quixote  de  La  Mancha,  Part  1,  Book  iii. ,  Chap.  4. 


BRIGHTON  : 
Printed  for  the  use  of  Stratford-on-Avon. 

1883. 


* 


THE  SHAKESPEARE  AUTOTYPES, 


THE 


^hakesjjcarc  -^utotnjjc  (Eommiltcc 
at  (Stratfori)-on-Jlbon> 


TKANSFORxMATION    SCENES. 


AND     A     RETROSPECT. 


THE       SECOIT3Z)       E  ID  I  T  I  O  IST 


What  I  gather  clearly  from  all  this,  quoth  Sancho,  is  that  thpse 
adventu'ca  will,  in  the  long  run,  bring  us  int  >  bo  msiiy  rlisventures  that 
we  shall  not  know  which  is  our  right  foot,  -2'/ic  Life  mid  Adixntnrcs  of 
Don  Quixote  de  La  Manclvi,  Part  1,  Book  iii  ,  Chap.  4. 


1'.RI(;HT0N  : 
Printed  for  the  use  of  Sikaiforu hn  Avon. 

1883. 


,1 


J) 


NOTE  TO    FHIS  EDITION. 

The  following  remarks,  up  to  page  25,  com- 
prise an  exact  reprint  of  the  first  edition  of  this 
little  pamphlet.  The  additional  observations 
have  been  rendered  necessary  by  subsequent 
events. 

It  will  be  observed  that  my  only  serious 
ground  for  complaint,  so  far  as  concerns  myself, 
is  an  insinuation  that  1  have  acted  improperly 
in  my  late  dealings  with  the  records.  That  in- 
sinuation has  been,  so  far  as  I  know,  restricted 
to  the  utterances  of  one  individual,  but  it  has 
nevertheless  been  publicly  disseminated  by 
Warwickshire  newspapers  of  large  circulation. 
It  is  only  natural  for  me  to  defend  myself 
against  such  an  attack,  and  if  vigorous  language 
is  introduced  into  my  side  of  the  controversy, 
the  latter  result  is  obviously  the  sole  fault  of 
the  aggressor,  not  that  of  the  hard-working 
student  to  whom  the  Town  Council  has,  for  the 
last  thirty  years  and  more,  and  with  the  kindest 
confidence,  practically  entrusted  the  care  of  their 
invaluable  muniments. 

Hollingbury  Copse, 

Brighton. — December,  1883. 


738056 


NOTE. 

So  many  years  have  elapsed  since  a  safe  and 
permanent  arrangement  of  the  Stratford  records 
was  effected  through  the  exertions  of  the  late 
Mr.  W.  O.  Hunt  and  myself,  nearly  all  the  local 
rulers  belong  to  a  new  generation.  It  is,  there- 
fore, no  great  matter  for  wonder  that  hazy  and 
erroneous  notions  should  prevail  respecting  the 
history  of  their  ancient  treasures,  and  even  the 
present  esteemed  and  respected  Mayor  has  pub- 
licly acknowledged,  within  the  last  few  months, 
that  he  was  not  aware  of  the  existence  of  any 
sort  of  calendar  of  them. 

In  view  of  the  probable  future  deliberations 
of  the  Council  on  this  important  subject,  it  is 
obviously  desirable  that  correct  information 
should  be  accessible,  and  this  is  the  main  object 
of  the  following  brief  notes.  That  I  should 
have  taken  the  opportunity  of  entering  into  one 
or  two  correlative  matters,  will  surprise  no  one 
who  has  perused  the  reports  of  certain  obser- 
vations that  have  been  made  at  a  recent  meeting 
of  the  Council. 

J.   O.   IIALLIWELL-PIIILLIPPS. 

Hollingbury  Copse, 

Brighton. — November,  1883. 


I 


THE    AUTOTYPE    COMMITTEE. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Town  Council  held  on 
the  6th  of  March,  1883,  the  following  letter  was 
read  by  the  Mayor  : — 

Hollingbury  Copse,  Brighton, 

15th  February,  1883. 
My  dear  Sir, — The  recent  action  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
British  Museum  in  ordering  autotypes  of  their  Shakespeare 
estate-deed  to  be  made  for  public  sale,  has  led  me  to  think 
that  a  similar  course  might  be  advantageously  pursued  in  respect 
to  some  of  the  valuable  papers  preserved  amongst  the  archives 
of  the  Corporation.  If  some  of  the  most  interesting  of  these 
were  nicely  autotyped  and  published  with  a  little  explanatory 
letter-press,  there  could  hardly  fail  to  be  a  demand  that  would 
not  only  defray  the  expenses  incurred  by  the  Corporation  in 
their  production,  but  also  ultimately  yield  a  profit.  Or,  if  it 
were  preferred,  I  should  be  most  happy  to  undertake  wh  itever 
risk  there  may  be  by  paying  the  expenses  of  bringing  out  the 
work,  merely  provided  that  the  Council  would,  when  the  copies 
were  delivered  into  their  hands,  undertake  to  arrange  for  their 
sale  at  Stratford-on-Avon  in  any  manner  they  may  ihink  expe- 
dient, the  proceeds,  after  the  bare  expense  of  autotyping  and 
printing  had  been  repaid,  to  be  of  course  at  their  sole  disposal. 

Hoping  that  you  will  do  me  the  favour  to  submit  this  proposal 
to  the  Council. 

I  am,  yours  faithfully, 

J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillipps, 

To  W.  G.  Colbourne,  Esq., 
Mayor  of  Stratford-on-Avon. 


lO 

The  proposal  contained  in  this  letter  was  most 
cordially  received,  an  unanimous  vote,  proposed 
by  Mr.  Hodgson,  being  passed,  —  "That  the 
latter  part  of  Mr.  H  alii  well- Phillipps's  letter  be 
accepted,  with  many  thanks  for  his  very  kind 
and  generous  oflfer."  After  this  resolution  had 
been  adopted,  another,  proposed  by  Mr.  Alder- 
man Cox, — "  That  a  sub-committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  give  effect  to  the  resolution  that  had 
been  proposed  by  Mr.  Hodgson,  and  to  confer 
with  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  thereon  upon  the 
occasion  of  his  next  visit  to  the  town,  the  sub- 
committee to  consist  of  the  Mayor,  Councillors 
F"lower  and  Hodgson," — was  also  unanimously 
carried. 

The  latter  resolution,  as  I  understood  and 
understand  it,  was  an  instruction  to  the  sub- 
committee to  arrange  for  the  sale  of  the  work 
at  Stratford-on-Avon,  after  the  copies  had  been 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  Co7'poration,  and 
to  confer  with  me  on  the  former  subject.  There 
was  nothing,  either  in  my  letter  or  in  the  reso- 
lution, to  suggest  that  a  supervision  over  my 
preliminary  work  was  contemplated.  The  very 
essence  of  my  offer  involved  the  personal  control 
of  the  work  so  far  as  its  preparation  was  con- 
cerned, after  which  the  management  of  publication 
was  to  be  left  to  the  Corporation,  while  at  the 


u 

same  time  the  negatives  were  of  course  to 
become  their  property.  That  this  view  was  the 
one  then  generally  taken  by  the  Council  is  ap- 
parent from  the  following  speech  :  - 

Alderman  Cox  said  the  letter  had  reference  only  to  the  auto- 
typing of  certain  documents  and  records  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Hallivvell-Phillipps,  with  descriptive  letter-press  added,  and, 
in  his  opinion,  it  was  advisable  that  the  resolution  proposed  by 
Mr.  Hodgson  should  be  adopted  rather  than  that  the  Corporation 
should  take  upon  themselves,  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Kendall,  the 
responsibility  and  cost  of  the  work  ;  because,  if  the  Corporation 
took  upon  themselves  the  publication  of  their  records,  it  would 
be  necessary  that  they  should  have  complete  control  of  the  work. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Council  I  am  ac- 
cused of  havino-  "  rather  ignored "  the  sub- 
committee,  but  that  this  is  really  not  the  case 
will  be  apparent  from  the  following  letter  which, 
a  few  months  afterwards,  I  addressed  to  the  then 
Mayor,  having  myself  been  unable  in  the  interval 
to  be  more  than  a  few  days  at  Stratford-on- 
Avon  : 

Hollingbury  Copse,  Brighton, 

22nd  September,  1883. 

My  dear  Sir,— When  at  Stratford-on-Avon  in  June,  my  brief 
visit  was  entirely  occupied  in  arranging  the  papers  given  us  by 
iMr.  Bush,  a  task  which,  in  courtesy  to  the  donor,  I  felt  should 
not  be  delayed.  You  kindly  promised  to  lay  my  letter  of  25  June 
on  that  subject  before  the  Executive  Committee,  and  1  have 
been  e.xpccting  to  hear  their  decision  on  the  matters  therein 
referred  to. 

This  business  prevented  my  then  giving  attention  to  the 
autotypes,  but  I  hope  to  be  at  Stratford-on-Avon  on  Tuesday  to 


12 

commence  them.  There  was,  you  doubtlessly  recollect,  a  sub- 
committee of  Mr.  Charles  Flower  and  Mr.  Hodgson  appointed 
to  confer  with  me  on  the  subject.  As  I  have  to  prepare  the 
letter-press,  the  selection  of  the  documents  is  necessarily  left  to 
myself,  so  that  for  the  present  there  can  be  nothing  for  the  sub- 
committee to  consider.  When  there  is,  there  may  be  some 
difficulty,  for,  after  his  treatment  of  my  friend  and  nominee,  Mr. 
Tyndall,  it  will  not  be  agreeable  to  me  to  meet  Mr.  Charles 
Flower  under  conditions  partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  personal 
conference. 

Believe  me, 

Yours  faithfully, 

J.  O.  Halliwell-Philllips. 

To  W.  G.  Colbourne,  Esq., 

Mayor  of  Stratford-on-Avon. 

It  was  painful  to  me  to  have  to  allude  here 
to  Mr.  Charles  Flower's  inconsiderate  and  un- 
courteous  treatment  of  a  personal  friend,  one 
whom  I  had  introduced  to  an  official  position  at 
Stratford,  and  to  whom,  so  far  as  his  receiving 
ordinary  civility  while  in  the  town  was  concerned, 
I  was  in  a  manner  responsible.  But,  under  the 
circumstances,  the  standpoint  was  an  unavoidable 
one.  The  slightest  expression  of  apology,  or 
even  of  regret,  would  have  terminated  the  oc- 
currence amicably,  but  that  slightest  expression 
was  unfortunately  not  forthcoming,  and  until  it 
is,  matters  in  this  direction  will,  I  fear,  remain 
in  an  uncomfortable  position. 


13 


TRANSFORMATION   SCENES. 

The  sub-committee  of  three,  appointed  in 
March  to  have  a  conference  with  me  respecting 
the  ultimate  publication  of  the  autotypes,  has 
been  suddenly,  and  without  notice,  converted  a 
few  days  ago  into  a  larger  one  having  the  super- 
vision and  control  of  the  whole  work.  What 
form  the  next  forward  movement  will  take  is 
difficult  to  conjecture.  Perhaps  each  document, 
as  it  is  proposed  for  autotype,  will  have  to  be 
submitted  to  a  public  meeting  at  the  Town  Hall 
to  adjudicate  upon  its  merits.  Gracefully  held 
up  in  the  hands  of  the  Chairman,  and  illumined 
by  lime-light,  the  effect  anyhow  would  be  pretty, 
if  not  touching. 

I  can  only  repeat  that,  when  I  made  the  pro- 
posal contained  in  my  letter  of  February,  no 
committee  of  supervision  over  my  work  was  con- 
templated, and  1  should  not  for  a  moment  have 
dreamt  of  consenting  to  work  under  such  rui 
arrangement.  For  very  many  years  1  have 
steadily  and  persistently  declined  to  work  under 
the  supervision  ol"  any  ( oniinillee,  no  mailer  how 
friendly  dispo.sed  thai  eonnnillee  may  have  been, 


H 

and  I  do  not  observe:  a  sufficicni  reason  wh)'.  on 
ihc  [jnscuL  occasion,  I  should  depart  from  what 
has  so  long  been  my  invariable  practice. 

Another  curious  and  inexplicable  transforma- 
tion has  taken  place  in  the  Council's  opinion  on 
the  mode  of  dealing  with  the  manuscripts  that 
are  to  be  autotyped.  It  was  only  in  March  last 
that  it  was  understood  that  any  documents  I 
required  were  to  be  lent  to  me,  —an  extent  of 
liberality  for  which  there  is  now  no  sufficient 
necessity,  and  one  which  was  far  beyond  my 
thoughts  or  wishes  I  should  be,  and  ever  have 
been,  opposed  to  a  single  document  being  re- 
moved beyond  the  limits  of  the  town  excepting 
in  a  case  of  indispensable  urgency.  Now,  how- 
ever, instead  of  proposing  to  lend  me  the  docu- 
ments, the  Council  is  staggereci  at  the  idea  of 
their  being  carefully  taken  the  distance  of  a  few 
hundred  yards,  and  pass  a  resolution  that  none 
shall  be  removed  from  the  Birth-Place,  thus 
practically  rendering  the  autotyping  an  impossi- 
bility. The  annexed  extracts  from  the  report 
of  the  previous  meeting  held  in  March  are  in 
strange  contrast  with  the  resolution  just  men- 
tioned, and  which  latter  has  positively  been 
carried  without  a  dissentient  voice  : — 

The  Mayor  said  that  Mr.  Phillipps  had  undertaken  to  supply 
autotypes  at  his  own  risk,  and  he  (the  Mayor)  thought  the  offer 
a  generous  one,  and  ought  in  some  way  to  be  entertained  by  the 


15 

Council.      He  wanted  the  opinion  of  the  Council  on  the  subject. 

Aldkrman  Cox, — It  has  reference  to  the  records  of  the 
Council  ? 

The  Mayor,— Yes. 

Mr.  Hodgson,— Which  are  kept  in  the  Shakespeare  Museum? 

The  Mayor,  -Yes. 

Alderman  Bird  thought  it  was  a  very  desirable  thing  to 
do  ;  but  he  should  disagree  with  the  Corporation  taking  the  risk. 
The  public  would  be  vastly  benefited  by  the  publication. 

The  Mayor  considered  Mr.  Phillipps's  offer  very  liberal 
indeed.     (Hear,  hear.) 

.Mr.  Hodgson,  -These  valuable  documents  would  go  out  of 
our  possession,  I  presume,  into  the  custody  of  Mr.  Phillipps. 

The  Mayor,— Necessarily. 

M'v.  Hodgson  said  that  before  they  did  lend  them,  if  the 
Council  were  of  opinion  that  they  should  comply  with  the  latter 
part  of  Mr.  Phillipps's  letter— and  he  hoped  the  Council  would 
do  so,  for  he  thought  it  a  very  nice  one  — every  care  should  be 
taken  that  the  documents  should  be  carefully  numbered  and 
registered.  -  Rcpoi  t  of  the  Council  Mcciitig,  as  given  in  iJie 
Stratford-on-Avon  C/ironic/c,  g  Maro/i,  iSSj. 


17 


A    RETROSPECT. 

When  I  was  introduced,  between  thirty  and 
forty  years  ago,  to  the  town  records,  there  were 
a  few, — about  a  dozen, — bound  volumes,  but  the 
great  mass,  thousands  upon  thousands  in  num- 
ber, were  loosely  scattered  in  boxes,  entirely 
unarranged,  modern  and  ancient  ones  mixed  up 
together,  all  covered  with  dust,  and  a  large 
number  crumpled  and  injured. 

A  remedy  for  this  deplorable  state  of  affairs 
was  a  frequent  subject  of  anxious  deliberation 
between  the  late  Mr.  W.  O.  Hunt  and  myself. 
The  time  had  not  arrived  for  public  interest  to 
be  taken  in  such  matters,  and  for  the  town  to 
be  burdened  with  the  large  expense  attendant 
on  the  engagement  of  a  professional  palaeo- 
grapher was  a  proposition  only  mentioned  to  be 
at  once  dismissed.  Ultimately  it  was  decided 
that  I  should  gradually  do  my  best  to  arrange 
the  papers,  numbering  each  for  volumes,  but 
without  reference  to  a  chronological  arrange- 
ment, the  latter  process  being  one  that  would 
have  greatly  impeded  progress  without  a  com- 
pensating advantage. 

B 


i8 

A  majority  of  the  records  required  cleaning, 
ilattening,  repairing,  and  mounting,  before  they 
were  susceptible  of  binding,  and  these  opera- 
tions, necessitating  a  special  experience  not  to 
be  met  with  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  the  work 
was  entrusted  by  us,  in  detachments,  to  the  hrm 
who  then  bound  manuscripts  for  the  Trustees  of 
the  British  Museum.  It  will  be  conceded  that 
no  more  judicious  selection  could  have  been 
made  for  the  purpose. 

Years  passed  on,  and,  in  1864,  the  work  was 
terminated  by  the  preparation  of  a  calendar, 
and  by  its  publication  in  a  thick  folio  volume 
entitled, — A  Descriptive  Calendar  of  the  Ancient 
ManusciHpts  and  Records  in  the  Possession  of 
the  Corporation  of  Stratford-ttpon-Avon,  in- 
cluding Notices  of  Shakespeare  and  his  Family, 
and  of  several  Persons  connectea  with  the  Poet. 
In  this  work  every  scrap  of  manuscript  then 
belonging  to  the  Corporation,  that  bore  date 
previously  to  the  year  1750,  was  described  and 
carefully  numbered,  thus  ensuring,  humanly 
speaking,  for  ever,  its  identification  and  safety. 
Upon  its  publication,  Stratford-on-Avon  pos- 
sessed an  account  of  its  literary  treasures  in  a 
far  more  elaboratly  form  than  has  even  yet  been 
attempted  for  any  other  town  in  the  kingdom. 
This  important  result  was  accomplished  without 


19 

drawing  upon  the  Corporate  funds  for  a  single 
halfpenny,  beyond  the  comparatively  insignifi- 
cant cost  incurred  by  the  binding  of  the  docu- 
ments. 

Having  thus  been  the  chief  agent  in  rescuing 
the  records  from  their  perilous  state, — every 
one  of  them,  moreover,  not  only  having  been 
read  and  examined  but  numbered  and  foliated 
by  myself, — holding,  in  fact,  a  position,  in  re- 
spect to  them,  which  can  never  again  fall  to  the 
lot  of  any  other  individual. — there  has  tacitly 
arisen,  under  these  unique  circumstances,  a  sort 
of  prescriptive  right  to  my  use  of  the  record 
keys.  That  right — one  of  courtesy — has  been 
assumed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  by  the  three 
successive  Town  Clerks  of  my  time,  and  they 
would,  indeed,  have  been  ungracious  had  they 
ignored  the  claim.  Those  who  labour  gratui- 
tously for  the  public  are  not  usually  debarred 
from  the  sight  of  their  own  work. 

When,  therefore,  it  was  found  that  the  auto- 
typing of  the  documents  could  not  possibly 
be  satisfactorily  conducted  at  the  record- 
room,  instead  of  asking  the  Town  Clerk  to 
superintend  their  temporary  transfer  to  the 
artist's  studio,  I  decided  upon  going  to  Strat- 
ford to  attend  to  the  matter  myself.  Having 
in  advance  requested  the  Town  Clerk  to  leave 


20 

the  keys  for  inc  at  the  Birth- Place,  I  look  the 
documents,  one  at  a  time,  to  the  studio,  and,  in 
this  way,  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  fourteen 
of  them  were  successfully  and  beautifully  fac- 
similed under  the  care  of  Mr.  Smartt  and  Mr. 
Fuidge.  My  good  friend,  the  Town  Clerk, 
stated,  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  Council,  that 
he  was  not  aware  that  any  documents  had  been 
removed  at  all,  and,  indeed.  I  saw  very  little  of 
him  during  my  visit,  and  have  no  recollection 
that  the  subject  of  the  autotypes  was  even 
casually  alluded  to  by  either  of  us. 

There  is  a  certain  degree  of  humiliation  in 
having  to  enter  into  these  minutiae,  but  the 
necessity  is  enforced  by  the  singularly  uncalled- 
for  tone  in  which  my  proceedings  have  been 
noticed.  According  to  a  report  of  the  last  Coun- 
cil meeting  published  a  day  or  two  afterwards 
in  a  county  paper — a  report  which  it  is  absurd  to 
suppose  could  have  been  biased — Mr.  Council- 
lor Flower  characterised  those  proceedings  as 
irregular  I  Irregular,  in  what  respect?  Irre- 
gular, because  I  carried  the  documents  across 
a  couple  of  streets  instead  of  accepting  the 
Council's  offer  of  taking  them  to  my  own  resi- 
dence, a  hundred  and  thirty  miles  away  ?  Irre- 
gular, because  1  travelled  to  Stratford-on-Avon 
for  the  express  and  sole  purpose  of  taking  per- 


21 


sonal  care  for  their  safety  ?  Irregular,  because 
I  took  only  one  at  a  time  to  the  studio,  and  saw 
that  each  was  placed  under  glass  beyond  the 
possibility  of  injury  ?  Irregular,  because  I  took 
special  care  to  see  that  each  one  was  safely  re- 
turned, the  same  day  and  in  daylight,  to  its  place 
in  the  record-room  ? 

According  to  the  same  report,  Mr.  Councillor 
Flower  observed  that  "a  Committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  superintend  the  autotyping  process, 
and,  if  anything  had  been  done,  the  sanction 
of  the  Committee  ought  first  to  have  been 
obtained,  so  as  to  ensure  proper  supervision." 
These  remarks  are  altogether  unwarranted. 
At  the  time  of  my  recent  visit,  no  Committee 
with  any  such  powers  had  been  appointed,  and, 
if  it  had  been,  I  should  have  declined  to  have 
acted  under  it. 

It  has  long  been  a  subject  of  regret  to  me 
that,  since  the  decease  of  Mr.  W.  O.  Hunt, 
there  has  been  no  one  at  Stratford-on-Avon  to 
study  the  numerous  interesting  questions  that 
arise  from  an  investigation  of  its  ancient  records. 
During  the  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
that  I  have  been  at  work  on  them,  Mr.  Coun- 
cillor Flower  has  never  appeared  on  the  scene 
to  study  or  consult  a  single  document, — has 
never,  until  within  the  last  few  days,  given  the 


22 

remotest  indication  that  he  cared  a  halfpenny 
about  them.  It  is  cheering  to  observe  that  this 
apathy  is  now  terminated, — that  so  influential  a 
member  of  the  Council  should  not  only  be  sud- 
denly awakened  to  the  unrivalled  importance  of 
the  records,  but  to  take  so  earnest  and  affec- 
tionate an  interest  in  their  preservation.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  this 
initial  enthusiasm  should  be  accompanied  by  an 
uncourteous  demeanor  towards  the  individual 
who  has,  for  so  many  years,  been  their  sole 
exponent. 


23 


THE     RECORD    ROOM. 

The  resolution  passed,  on  the  9th  inst.,  to 
the  effect  that  no  documents  are,  under  any 
circumstances,  to  be  taken  from  this  room,  was 
preceded  by  another  which  gave  Dr.  Ingleby 
permission  to  autotype  the  leaves  of  Greene's 
Diary.  Let  me  assure  the  Council,  from  per- 
sonal experience,  that  the  observance  of  the 
first-named  resolution  will  render  the  execution 
of  the  other  one  an  impossibility.  Being  ex- 
tremely well  acquainted  with  the  room  in  ques- 
tion, and  having  passed  many  hundreds  of  hours 
within  its  dimly-lighted  precincts,  I  can  bear 
witness  that,  in  numerous  cases,  the  mere  read- 
ing of  difficult  passages,  however  much  assisted 
by  powerful  glasses,  is  altogether  impracticable 
therein.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  useless  to 
fancy  that  satisfactory  photographs  of  ancient 
writings  could  be  obtained  in  such  a  chamber, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  inexpediency  of  permitting 
the  erection  of  scientific  apparatus  in  any 
portion  of  the  Birth-Place.  It  is  unlikely, 
moreover,  that  the  Trustees  would  ever  consent 
to  the  introduction,  into  that  building,  of  opera- 
tions that  involve  the  use  of  powerful  chemicals. 


24 

The  autotypes  of  Greene's  Diary,  so  kindly 
and  generously  offered  by  Dr.  Ingleby  to  be 
taken  at  his  expence,  would  be  of  invaluable 
service  to  the  biographical  student.  There  is 
one  single  letter  (a  letter  of  the  alphabet,  not 
an  epistle)  in  that  diary,  the  true  interpretation 
of  which  letter  can  alone  decide  the  character 
of  one  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  of 
Shakespeare's  life.  This  curious  fact  is  well 
known  to  most  students,  but  no  one  was  aware 
till  lately,  nor  until  the  circumstance  was  acutely 
suggested  by  Dr.  Ingleby,  that  the  interpretation 
of  that  letter  is  still  further  dependent  on  the 
marginal  state  of  one  leaf  of  the  diary.  Upon 
such  apparently  trifling  minutiae  is  the  solution 
of  important  historical  questions  so  often  con- 
tingent !  Yet,  so  long  as  the  restrictive  order 
continues  in  force,  all  such  investigations  will 
be  necessarily  either  discontinued  or  imperfectly 
conducted.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the 
Council  can  desire  such  a  result. 


25 


TsroTES. 

Page  II,  line  6.  The  supervision  and  control. — It  is  true 
that  the  words  themselves  are  not  found  in  the  Resolution,  but 
the  whole  tenor  of  the  conversation  at  the  meeting  shows  that 
they  were  assumed  to  be  included. 

Page  i6,  line  ig.  Then  belonging. — Some  years  after  the 
publication  of  the  Calendar,  I  happened  to  observe,  at  a  friend's 
house  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  two  folio  manuscript  volumes  which 
had  (ibviously  formed  at  one  time  part  of  the  Corporation 
records.  The  holder  was  unacquainted  with  their  history, — 
could  not  read  a  line  of  them,  -and  was  only  surprised  that 
their  leaves  had  not  long  since  been  put  under  pie-bottoms. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  books  were  cheerfully 
delivered  into  my  hands  and  duly  placed  in  the  record-room. 
These  are,  I  believe,  the  only  volumes  that  are  now  un- 
calendared. 

Page  ig,  line  21.  There  has  been  tio  one. — Although  the 
present  Town  Clerk,  Mr.  Thonias  Hunt,  has  never  pretended  to 
inherit  the  antiquarian  tastes  of  his  Father,  he  has  been  of 
invaluable  assistance  to  my  researches  by  giving  me,  during 
many  years,  the  earliest  intimation  of  everything  at  all  likely  to 
be  useful  in  my  local  and  Shakespeare-biographical  studies.  I 
take  the  present  opportunity  of  recording  my  grateful  acknow- 
ledgments to  this  dear  old  friend,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  state 
that  it  was  practically  owing  to  him  that  the  estate  of  New 
Place  was  secured  for  the  town.  If  he  had  not  informed  me  of 
certain  negociations  the  moment  they  came  to  his  knowledge,  it 
would  unquestionably  have  passed  into  the  hands  of  merciless 
speculators. 


27 


MR.  CHARLES  FLOWER'S  SPEECH. 

The  following  is  a  report  of  the  speech 
delivered  by  Mr.  Charles  Flower  at  the  Council 
Meeting  held  on  Tuesday,  December  the  4th. 
Other  reports  in  county  newspapers  include 
stronger  language  in  reference  to  myself,  but,  as 
Mr.  Charles  Flower  apparently  prefers  those 
in  the  journals  of  his  own  town,  the  one  here 
given  is  taken  from  the  Stratford-on-Avon 
Herald,  and  that  in  the  Chronicle  is  practically 
identical  with  it. — 

Councillor  Flower,  continuing,  said  he  might  now,  perhaps, 
be  allowed  to  refer  to  a  personal  matter.  The  Mayor,  no  doubt, 
and  all  the  other  members  of  the  Council,  had  received  a 
pamphlet  sent  by  Mr.  J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillipps.  In  that 
pamphlet  there  were  several  statements  which  would  call  for  the 
full  consideration  of  the  Council,  which  consideration,  he 
presumed,  would  be  given  at  some  future  .iieeting,  of  which  due 
notice  would  be  given  ;  and  probably  the  sub-committee  which 
was  appointed  at  the  last  meeting— from  which  he  had  now 
withdrawn,  and  at  which  the  members  of  the  Council  would  not 
be  surprised— would  make  some  inquiries  in  reference  to  those 
statements.  And,  although  they  would  not  then  enter  into  the 
general  subject  of  the  pamphlet,  he  might  be  permitted  to  say  a 
few  words  with  regard  to  that  portion  of  it  which  was  personal 
to  himself.  He  was  never  more  surprised  than  to  learn  as  he 
did   for  the  first  time  from  that  pamphlet  that  there  was  any 


28 


personal  unpleasantness  between  Mr.  Halliwcll-i'hiilipos  and 
himself,  and  especially  to  learn  from  the  letter  printed  on  page 
lo  that  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  had  a  difficulty  in  meeting  that 
sub-committee  because  he  vvas  a  member  of  it.  He  must  say 
that  in  alluding  to  that  matter — the  resignation  of  Mr.  Tyndall 
— Mr  Halliwell-Phillipps  had  behaved  in  a  most  extraordinary 
manner,  to  say  the  least  of  it  At  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Birth-place  Trustees  in  May,  the  Executive  Committee  were 
prepared  to  discuss  certain  charges  which  had  been  made  by 
Mr.  Tyndall  and  Mr.  Phillipps  ;  but,  at  the  most  urgent  request 
of  Mr.  Phillipps  himself  that  the  matter  should  be  allowed  to 
drop,  the  Trustees  did  not  go  into  it,  and  the  Executive 
Committee  consented  to  waive  their  right  to  vindicate  themselves 
from  the  very  haL-ih  and  inaccurate  statements  that  had  been 
most  recklessly  circulated.  The  Committee,  in  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  Mr.  Phillipps,  consented  to  let  bygones  be  bygones  > 
and  now,  six  nionths  after,  Mr.  Phillipps  referred  to  these  things 
as  if  those  charges  had  been  substantiated  ;  and  he  chose  to  fix 
them  person.iUy  upon  him,  he  presumed,  because  he  found  it 
more  convenient  to  attack  an  individual  than  a  whole  committee. 
He  most  emphatically  denied  those  charges,  and  asserted  that  if 
the  Trustees  had  been  allowed  to  go  into  the  matter  they  would 
have  seen  that  the  words  "  inconsiderate  "  and  "  uncourteous  " 
should  have  been  applied  in  a  very  different  direction.  From 
the  tone  of  the  remarks  on  pages  19  and  20  (noia  21  and  22), 
they  would  be  able  to  judge  something  of  the  accuracy  of  Mr. 
Halliwell-Phillipps  and  of  the  style  of  his  language,  and  he 
thought  they  could,  perhaps,  form  an  opinion  as  to  whom  the 
words  "  uncourteous  demeanour  "  should  apply.  It  appeared 
that  Mr.  Halliwell  -  Phillipps  took  exception  to  the  word 
"  irregular,"  which  he  quoted  from  some  county  paper  as 
having  been  applied  to  his  proceedings.  He  had  referred 
to  the  reports  in  the  Herald  and  Chronicle,  and  he  found 
that  no  such  word  or  anything  like  it  was  used  by 
him,  for  the  very  good  reason  that  he  did  not  use  such 
a  word.  He  did  not  use  it  for  the  very  good  reason  that  he 
knew  nothing  of  those   proceedings    to  which   Mr.    Halliwell- 


29 

Phillipps  alluded  until  he  read  them  from  his  pamphlet.  It  was 
usual  when  any  gentleman  had  reason  to  feel  himself  aggrieved 
at  words  reported  in  a  paper  to  have  been  spoken  by  another  to 
inquire,  in  the  first  place,  if  the  report  was  correct.  Mr. 
Phillipps  had  not  applied  to  him,  but  Mr.  Phillipps  had  made 
other  inquiries,  and  knew,  before  he  sent  that  pamphlet,  that 
he  (Mr.  Flower)  did  not  use  any  such  expression.  Yet  he  de- 
liberately applied,  quoting  from  some  county  paper,  e.xpressions 
knowing  that  he  (Mr.  Flower)  did  not  use  them,  because,  if  he 
had  adhered  to  the  exact  facts,  he  would  have  been  pre- 
vented from  using  that  fine  egotistical  flourish  on  the  word 
"  irregular."  Mr.  Halliwell- Phillipps  had  drawn  very  largely  on 
his  imagination,  and  possibly  his  conscience  might  have  told 
him  that  "irregular"  was  the  mildest  term  that  could  have 
been  applied  to  those  proceedings.  He  was  not  aware — 
he  did  not  think  any  member  of  that  Council  was  aware — before 
reading  that  pamphlet  that  fourteen  most  valuable  documents 
had  been  removed  from  the  record-room  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  .Mayor,  or  any  member  of  the  Corporation,  or  even  of 
the  Town  Clerk.  He  thought  a  stronger  word  than  irregular 
might  be  applied  to  those  proceedings,  especially  if,  as  he 
understood,  Mr.  Phillipps  had  allowed  the  photographer  to 
retain  the  negatives  and  register  the  copyright  in  his  own  name. 
He  thought  he  had  replied  to  all  that  was  personal  to  him  ;  the 
other  part  of  the  pamphlet  would,  no  doubt,  receive  due 
consideration  by  the  Council. 


I 


31 


THE    LIBRARIAN    QUESTION. 

The  reader  of  the  foregoing  speech  would 
naturally  infer  from  it  that  I  had  induced  the 
Executive  Committee  to  abandon,  as  a  personal 
favour  to  myself,  a  disagreeable  adjudication  in 
regard  to  Mr.  Tyndall,  and  that  I  had  then, 
with  a  scandalous  dexterity,  converted  their 
silence  into  a  virtual  admission  of  my  own 
views  on  the  subject.  It  will,  however,  be 
clearly  seen,  from  what  follows,  that  such  in- 
ferences could  not  possibly  be  more  erroneous. 
The  initial  plain  facts — those  facts  which  are 
the  real  foundation  of  all  my  action  in  the 
matter  are  comprised  in  the  following  brief 
statement,  here  given  in  Italics. — J\Ir.  Charles 
Flozver,  on  his  uivn  respojisibiliiy,  ordered  the 
paymejii  of  the  Librarians  salary  to  be  stopped, 
this  very  serious  step  being  taken  on  his  (J\Ir. 
Charles  Flower  s)  interpretation  of  oral  evidence 
respecting  the  correct  time  of  the  Lib7'aria7is 
taking  a  brief  holiday,  such  oral  evidence  being 
distinctly  repudiated  by  the  Librarian  himself. 

If  Mr.  Charles  Flower  can  disprove  these 
facts,    I    will    not   only   at    once    withdraw    the 


32 

paragraph  relating  to  him  which  occurs  in  my 
letter  of  the  22nd  of  September  (see  p.  12), 
but  also  tender  the  fullest  apology  for  having 
written  it.  If  he  cannot,  —  and  no  semblance  of 
a  disproof  has  yet  come  to  my  knowledge, — 
then,  by  all  the  laws  of  friendship  and  society, 
I  am  justified  in  taking  up  the  cudgels  in  de- 
fence of  my  friend  and  nominee,  and  in  not 
laying  them  down  again  until  there  has  been 
something  like  an  apology  in  another  direction. 

For  what  does  the  suspension  of  an  official's 
salary  mean  before  the  public  ?  It  has  ever 
been  the  last  resource  in  serious  cases  of  sus- 
picion culminating  into  investigation,  and  it 
means,  for  the  time,  loss  of  position  and  charac- 
ter. And  yet  here  was  my  poor  friend— a 
gentleman  not  only  afflicted  with  a  highly 
nervous  temperament,  but  suffering  from  weak 
and  delicate  health  —  allowed  to  endure  the 
torture  of  mental  anxiety  in  this  matter  for 
upwards  of  a  month, 

I  was  determined  that  there  should  be  some 
kind  of  reversal  in  the  line  of  conduct  that  had 
been  adopted,  and  a  long  correspondence  took 
place  in  which  I  never  ceased  to  urge  that  view 
upon  the  Executive  Committee.  The  Librarian 
had  of  course  immediately  resigned,  and  had 
afterwards  left  the  Town.      Shortly,  however, 


JO 


before  the  next  annual  meeting  of  the  Trustees, 
held  on  the  5th  of  May  last,  I  understood  that 
all  the  correspondence  on  the  subject  was  to  be 
laid  before  that  meeting,  and,  ascertaining  that 
the  Executive  Committee  were  to  assemble  on 
the  25th  of  April,  I  addressed  the  following 
letter  to  the  then  Mayor  (now  copied  from  my 
draft,  not  having  made  a  fair  transcript,  but  it 
is  no  doubt  substantially  accurate) — 

hollingbqry  copse,  brighton, 

24  April,  1883. 
My  Dear  Sir, — 

Your  telegram  reached  me  yesterday  aUernoon  when  in  the 
midst  of  receiving  guests  to  my  daughter's  marriage,  which 
takes  place  here  to-morrow  morning.  The  consequence  is  that 
I  have  but  a  short  time  for  writing  to-day  before  our  country 
post  leaves,  and,  under  these  circumstances,  I  am  sure  that  the 
Committee  will  kindly  excuse  the  necessarily  somewhat  frag- 
mentary and  hurried  nature  of  this  communication,  as  also  my 
temerity  in  addressing  them  so  freely.  But  the  very  great 
interest  I  take  in  the  progress  of  the  Museum  and  Library, 
united  with  a  special  life-long  study,  and  a  desire  for  the  preser- 
vation of  harmony,  will,  I  hope  now,  as  heretofore,  plead  in  my 
favor. 

I.    T/te  Report. 

In  the  place  of  the  paragraph  commencing,  "  a  further  selec- 
tion,"— which  is  hardly  explicit — I  would  venture  to  suggest  the 
following, — "  In  compliance  with  a  Resolution  parsed  at  the  last 
"  meeting  of  the  Trustees,  the  library  at  the  Birth-place  was 
"  carefully  examined  by  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  with  a  view  to 
"  the  elimination  of  those  books  which  were  unconnected  with 
"the  biography  of  Shakespeare  or  with  the  history  of  ;.tratfoid- 
"  on-Avon.       The  examination  resulted  in  the  transl'er  of  six 


34 

"  hundred  and  fifty  volumes,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of 
"  that  Resolution,  to  the  Memorial  Library." 

The  rejection  of  presents  offered  to  the  Museum  may  some- 
times be  attended  with  difficulty,  but  if  donors  of  inadmissible 
objects  were  informed  of  the  strict  rule  respecting  them,  and 
that  there  was  a  more  appropriate  receptacle  at  the  Memorial 
Theatre,  a  person  would  be  unreasonable  to  complain,  while 
their  acceptance  for  the  latter  institution  would  obviate  the 
otherwise  disagreeable  necessity  for  the  ungracious  task  of  re- 
turning gifts. 

Mr.  Bush's  present  clearly  requires  careful  sorting  and 
arrangement,  the  appropriate  papers  being  accepted  and  de- 
scribed, and  perhaps,  in  this  instance,  the  donor  might  prefer 
the  rejections  being  returned.  Would  it  not  be  as  well  to  limit 
the  description  at  present  somewhat  as  follows  ? — "  A  large  col- 
"  lection  of  papers,  chiefly  in  manuscript,  respecting  Stratford- 
"  on-Avon,  the  Hart  and  Jordan  families,  correspondence  on 
"  Shakespearean  and  local  subjects,  &c.,  presented  by  W. 
"Harrington  Bush,  Esq." 

And  when  I  am  next  at  Stratford-on  Avon,  if  the  Committee 
will  permit  me,  I  will  go  carefully  through  the  lot,  and  report 
on  its  contents. 

II.  Mr.  Tyndall. 

In  the  very  earnest  and  anxious  hope  that  the  tiresome  and 
disagreeable  matters  connected  with  Mr.  Tyndall's  retirement 
may  be  relegated  to  the  past,  and  not  be  unnecessarily  brought 
forward  to  the  danger  of  creating  serious  differences  of  opinion, 
or  leading  to  a  public  discussion,  I  venture  to  enter  into  the 
question.  Of  course  the  view  I  take  may  be  modified  if  I  have 
been  in  any  way  misinformed,  but  judging  from  the  plain  facts 
— those  facts  which,  unless  they  can  be  controverted,  would  be 
the  basis  of  an  appeal  to  public  opinion— an  opinion  which  in- 
variably, in  its  ultimate  form,  is  delivered  on  facts,  and  not  from 
the  impressions  of  A  or  the  recollections  of  B, — then  on  those 
facts,  so  far  as  I  know  them,  that  is  to  say,  if  they  are  facts,  and 
are  not  capable  of  refutation,— then  I  am  reluctantly  compelled 
to   say   that    Mr.    Tyndall    has    been   discourteously   and   un- 


35 

generously  treated,  and  that  I,  as  his  friend  and  nominee,  should 
be  excused  if,  in  the  earlier  intimations  of  the  case,  and  with 
emotions  unexpectedly  raised,  I  expressed  myself  in  stronger 
language  than  I  should  now  do  after  this  lapse  of  time. 

The  facts,  as  I  understand  them,  are  these. — Mr.  Tyndall 
was  entitled  in  1882  to  an  annual  vacation,  the  time  of  taking  it 
having  hitherto  been  at  his  own  selection.  It  then  seems  that, 
at  a  nieeting  of  the  Committee  in  the  spring  of  last  year^  verbal 
instructions  were  given  to  Mr.  Leaver  to  inform  Mr.  Tyndall 
that  he  was  not  to  leave  at  any  time  without  the  special  permis- 
sion of  the  Committee.  Mr.  Tyndall,  however,  took  his  holiday 
in  June,  1882,  without  applying  for  such  permission. 

It  then  seems  that,  after  a  Committee  Meeting  on  the 
Second  of  August,  Mr.  Leaver  informed  Mr.  Tyndall  that  his 
quarter's  salary  (then  due)  was  to  be  withheld  until  the  subject 
of  his  departure  without  leave  was  considered  at  the  September 
meeting.  I  have  been  subsequently  informed  that  there  was  not 
a  quorum  present  on  the  second  instant,  but  that  circumstance 
does  not  in  the  least  degree  affect  the  gravity  of  the  step  taken 
against  Mr.  Tyndall. 

Now  even  admitting,  as  I  do  not,  that  such  a  step  would 
have  been  justified  had  a  resolution  respecting  the  leave  been 
passed  and  communicated  to  Mr.  Tyndall  in  writing  before  his 
departure  for  his  vacation,  no  one  can  doubt  that  it  was  contrary 
to  all  precedent  to  take  that  step  in  the  absence  of  such  a 
formality.  Every  one  knows  how  conversations  are  apt  to  be 
variously  interpreted,  even  when  there  is  not  the  remotest 
intention  to  equivocate.  It  is  quite  likely  that  Mr.  Leaver  may 
be  fairly  under  the  impression  that  he  explicitly  communicated 
the  wishes  of  the  Committee  to  Mr.  Tyndall,  and  yet  the  accept- 
ance of  such  a  view  does  not  invalidate  a  disclaimer  I  received 
from  Mr.  Tyndall  on  the  following  day, 

Mr.  Tyndall  speaks,  in  the  same  communication,  of  the 
action  taken  about  the  salary  as  exceedingly  derogatory  to 
himself,  and  as  one  necessitating  his  resignation  :  That  the  step 
was  in  the  highest  degree  uncourteous  to  Mr.  Tyndall  cannot  be 


36 

questioned,  and  no  action  of  the  kind  taken  against  a  public 
officer  has  been  recorded  excepting  in  serious  cases  of  dis- 
honesty. 

I  have  ventured  also  to  assert  that  Mr.  Tyndall  has  been 
ungenerously  treated,  for  there  was  no  pretence  for  refusing 
payment  of  the  salary  (as,  indeed,  the  Committee  virtually 
acknowledged  by  their  subsequent  unanimous  vote  for  its  dis- 
charge), and  if  there  had  been  thought  to  have  been  reason  for 
its  deferment,  surely  a  special  meeting  should  have  been  at  once 
summoned,— this  not  only  in  the  possibility  of  inconvenience 
being  created  by  the  delay  (the  inquiry  was  not  made),  but  to 
limit  the  anxiety  necessarily  involved  by  what  was,  at  all  events, 
a  question  of  position,  if  not  of  character 

It  was  very  natural,  under  such  conditions,  that  Mr, 
Tyndall  should  have  felt  indignant  at  the  treatment  he  received, 
and  not  wonderfully  surprising  that,  when  he  addressed  the 
Trustees  on  the  30th  of  August,  he  should  have  written  some 
passages  more  fiercely  than  I,  for  one,  should  have  advised. 
This  le'ter,  it  seems,  is  to  be  laid  before  the  general  meeting, 
but  surely  now  that  Mr.  Tyndall  has  left,  and  no  inducement 
would  secure  his  return,  the  discussion  of  the  circumstances 
which  led  to  his  resignation  can  only  end  in  a  debate  at  once  as 
useless  as  it  might  be  unpleasant,—  at  the  same  time  that  you 
will,  I  hope,  allow  me  to  express  my  conviction  that  the  result 
would  not  be  adverse  to  Mr.  Tyndall. 

But  I  am  in  great  hopes  that  the  Committee,  on  a  dis- 
passionate review  of  the  whole  case,  will  feel  that,  however 
unintentionally,  Mr.  Tyndall  has  received  inconsiderate  treat- 
ment, and,  if  so,  that  they  will  kindly  excuse  my  respectfully  but 
most  earnestly  entreating  them  to  salve  over  all  matters  by 
coupling  with  an  announcement  of  Mr.  Tyndall's  resignation 
some  expression  of  recognition  of  the  conscientious  manner  in 
which  he  performed  his  duties  while  in  office,  Whatever 
opinion  may  be  formed  of  his  efficiency  as  a  librarian,  none 
can  be  given  adverse  to  his  thorough  conscientiousness  or  to  his 


37 

gentlemanly  reception  of  all  visitors  to  the  Museum.      Believe 

me, 

Yours  faithfully, 

J.    O.    HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS. 

To  W.  G.  Colbourne,  Esq., 

Mayor  of  Stratford-on-Avon. 

Now,  so  far  from  there  having  been  an  ap- 
proach to  a  contract  on  the  terms  suggested  in 
the  latter  part  of  this  letter,  /  never  received  any 
commimication  on  the  subject  at  all !  It  was 
only  by  continually  writing  and  telegramming 
that  I  could  get  at  a  faint  knowledge  of  what 
was  going  on,  and  it  was  not  till  late  on  the  3rd 
of  May,  two  days  before  the  general  meeting, 
that  I  heard  that  the  correspondence  was  to  be 
laid  upon  the  table.  There  was  no  time  to  lose, 
and  I  at  once  decided  to  address  the  Trustees. 
The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  humble  and 
supplicatory  letter  which  was  posted  the  next 
day  (May  4th)  to  every  member  of  that  body  : — 

HOLLINGBURY   COPSE,   BRIGHTON, 

4th  May,  1883. 
My  Lords  and  Gentlemen,— 

You  will,  I  feel  sure,  permit  me  to  address  you  under  the 
following  singular  circumstances. 

Early  in  the  year  1880  it  was  proposed  to  secure  a  librarian 
for  the  Birth-place,  the  salary  to  be  ^100  a  year  without  a  house 
or  contingent  advantages  of  any  description.  It  was  of  course 
nearly  hopeless  to  expect  the  services  of  an  experienced  librarian 
at  so  low  a  scale  of  remuneration,  absolutely  so  for  those  of  a 
scholar  competent  to  interpret  and  calendar  the  numerous 
recondite  documents  preserved   in   the  library.     And   several 


38 

experienced  librarians,  to  whom  the  acceptance  of  the  post  was 
suggested,  did  decline  on  account  of  the  insignificance  of  the 
salary.  In  the  midst  of  these  difficulties,  I  ventured  to  re- 
commend Mr.  Tyndall  as  the  most  eligible  person  that  I  could 
hear  of  who  was  willing  to  undertake  the  duties,  a  gentleman 
whom  I  described  in  my  letter  of  recommendation  of  May  the 
4th,  1880,  as  "most  strictly  conscientious,  willing  to  accept  a 
"  small  salary,  not  above  helping  the  Misses  Chattaway  in  conduct- 
*'  ing  visitors,  and,  as  he  can  talk  French,  Italian,  and  German 
"  perfectly  well,  he  might  occasionally  prove  useful  in  explaining 
"the  relics,  &c.,  to  foreigners."  The  recommendation  was 
favourably  received,  and  Mr.  Tyndall  accepted  the  situation  on 
the  understanding  (a  condition,  indeed,  on  his  part,)  that  he  was 
to  have  a  tolerably  long  vacation,  the  engagement  to  terminate 
by  three  months'  notice  on  either  side.  The  length  of  the 
vacation  was  fixed  by  the  Executive  Committee  at  six  weeks,  no 
stipulation  being  made  as  to  the  time  it  was  to  be  taken.  Mr. 
Tyndall  accordingly  selected  his  own  periods  for  it  in  his  first 
two  years  of  office,  merely  giving  notice  of  the  times  of  his 
departures  to  the  Secretary. 

It  seems  that,  early  in  the  last  year,  some  member  of  the 
Committee,  unarmed  by  a  resolution  of  the  Committee,  verbally 
told  the  Secretary  to  verbally  inform  Mr.  Tyndall  that  he  was  not 
to  leave  without  previously  obtaining  the  special  permission  of 
the  Committee.  Verbal  messages,  as  every  one  knows,  are  apt 
to  be  verbally  misinterpreted.  The  above-mentioned  purport 
of  the  one  in  question,  if  delivered,  was  not  realized  by  Mr. 
Tyndall,  who  departed  for  the  first  instalament  of  his  vacation  in 
happy  ignorance  of  his  liability  to  an  accusation  of  having  com- 
mitted a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Committee  that  took  place  after  Mr. 
Tyndall's  return  was  held  on  August  the  2nd,  and,  however  in- 
credible it  may  appear,  Mr.  Tyndall,  after  its  termination,  was 
informed  by  the  Secretary  that,  in  consequence  of  his  having 
taken  his  vacation  without  a  special  warrant,  the  payment  of  his 
quarter's  salary  due  on  the  5th  inst.  would  be  withheld  for  the 
present,  the  generous  intimation  being  added  that  consideration 


39 

would  be  given  to  a  doubt  as  to  whether  three  weeks'  remunera- 
tion should  not  be  deducted  from  the  amount. 

In  the  face  of  this  deliberate  insult,— one  without  precedent 
in  the  annals  of  English  librarianship,— Mr.  Tyndall,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  immediately  decided  to  tender  his  resigna- 
tion, but  he  had  no  opportunity  of  doing  so,  nor  was  his  salary 
paid,  until  the  expiration  of  another  month. 

When  the  Executive  met  in  September,  not  the  semblance 
of  an  apology  was  offered  to  Mr.  Tyndall  for  the  grave  dis- 
courtesy to  which  he  had  been  liable,-  not  the  faintest  expression 
of  regret  for  the  pain  and  anxiety  which  he  had  been  unneces- 
sarily allowed  to  endure  for  weeks  under  an  action  that  seriously 
affected  his  position  as  a  gentleman.  So  far  from  such  matters 
being  taken  into  consideration,  exception  was  taken  to  the  terms 
in  which  he  announced  his  resignation,  his  letters  respecting 
which  were  requested  to  be  withdrawn,  the  Committee 
apparently  overlooking  the  fact  that  the  terms  alluded  to 
resulted  from  the  feelings  of  indignation  naturally  elicited  by  the 
cruel  treatment  to  which  he  had  been  subjected. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  Mr.  Tyndall  retired  the 
moment  the  terms  of  his  agreement  enabled  him  to  do  so,  and 
nothing  more  was  heard  of  the  matter  until  it  was  announced,  in 
the  draft  Annual  Report  dated  on  the  20th  ult.,  that  a  corres- 
pondence on  the  subject  of  the  resignation  would  be  laid  before 
the  Trustees. 

Deeply  impressed  with  the  probability  that  a  discussion  on 
the  subject  would  disturb  the  harmony  at  present  existing 
amongst  the  Trustees, — a  harmony  always  of  course  most 
desirable  to  maintain,  but  specially  so  just  now  amidst  the 
serious  difficulties  attending  the  management  of  the  Trust, — I 
took  an  early  opportunity  of  addressing  a  letter  to  the  Mayor,  to 
be  laid  before  the  Executive,  in  which  I  ventured  to  suggest,  in 
the  interest  of  peace,  that,  now  that  Mr.  Tyndall  had  left,  and 
no  inducement  would  secure  his  return,  whether  it  might  not  be 
desirable  to  limit  the  notice  in  the  Report  to  the  mere  announce- 
ment of  his  resignation,  accompanying  the  notice  with  some  kind 
expressions  towards  Mr.  Tyndall  that  might  tend  to  obliterate 


40 

the  recollection  of  the  past.  To  that  appeal  —the  terms  of  which 
the  Mayor  is  of  course  at  liberty  to  produce — I  have  received  no 
reply,  and  the  only  intimation  I  have  of  the  line  to  be  adopted 
is  in  a  letter  from  the  Secretary,  dated  the  2nd  inst,  and  reach- 
ing me  yesterday  afternoon,  in  which  he  says,  -"  I  have  to  inform 
"  you  that,  as  the  subject  has  been  named  in  the  preliminary 
"report,  the  paragraph  relating  to  the  correspondence  with  the 
"  late  librarian  will  be  read,  but  it  will  depend  on  the  Trustees 
"present  at  the  annual  meeting  as  to  the  production  of  the  letters 
*'  and  their  being  read  or  not." 

It  is  thus  highly  probable,  if  not  inevitable,  that  the  letters 
will  be  read  at  the  annual  meeting,  and,  in  Mr.  Tyndall's  absence 
a  discussion  upon  them  could  hardly  fail  to  be  accompanied  by, 
verbal  evidences  that  must  necessarily  to  some  extent  partake 
of  an  ex  parte  character.  As  I  cannot  stand  quietly  by  and  see 
the  position  of  my  friend  and  nominee --one  ol  the  most  amiable 
and  conscientious  of  men  — unfairly  jeopardized,  I  have  en- 
deavoured thus  hastily  to  give  a  fair  version  of  the  case,  omitting 
much  that  I  could  have  adduced  in  confirmation,  the  fewness  of 
the  hours  that  have  elapsed  since  1  was  acquainted  with  the 
failure  of  my  appeal  rendering  it  impossible  for  me  to  do  more 
in  time  for  copies  of  this  letter  to  reach  Stratford  to-morrow. 
I  have  the  honour  to  be. 

My  Lords  and  Gentlemen, 

Your  faithful  Servant, 

J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillipps. 

P.S.  — It  was  not  until  long  afterwards  that  I  heard  there  was 
not  a  quorum  on  the  2nd  of  August,  but  the  circumstance  does 
not  in  the  least  affect  the  gravity  of  the  action  taken  against  M  r. 
Tyndall. 

It  is  more  than  idle  to  say,  in  the  face  of  all 
this,  that  the  matter  was  dropped  in  deference 
to  my  urgent  request  to  the  Trustees.  But 
even,  under  the  then  circumstances,  if,  at  the 
Trustee   meeting,   Mr.  Charles  Flower  or  any 


41 

member  of  the  Executive  Committee,  had  pro- 
posed a  complimentary  vote  to  Mr.  Tyndall  in 
the  name  of  the  Committee  (tiiat  was,  of  course, 
what  was  meant  in  my  letter  of  the  24th  of 
April),  I  should  have  accepted  that  course  as  a 
sufficient  vindication  of  my  friend.  But  so  far 
from  any  design  of  the  kind  being  even  con- 
templated, the  correspondence  was  admittedly 
ready  for  production  in  the  assumed  defence  of 
the  action  that  had  been  taken  against  the 
Librarian  (see  che  Herald  report  of  May  i  ith), 
and  it  was  reserved  for  an  independent  member. 
Dr.  Ingleby,  to  propose  and  carry  the  following 
resolution, — 

That  the  Trustees  hear  with  regret  that  Mr.  Bruce  Tyndall 
has  resigned  his  office  of  librarian,  and  wish  to  record  their 
sense  of  the  ability  with  which  he  discharged  the  duties  of  the 
office ;  and  that,  ///  their  opi/iiott,  it  is  not  expedient  to  go  into 
the  correspondence  which  has  taken  place  between  the  Executive 
Committee  and  Mr.  Tyndall. 

This  Resolution  was  satisfactory,  so  far  as  it 
went,  but  it  ignored  altogether  the  very  serious 
and  important  point  (see  p.  32)  in  respect  to 
which  all  along  I  had  insisted  upon  the  necessity 
of  a  verbal  reparation.  I  had  failed  in  this,  and 
yet  because  for  a  few  months  afterwards  I 
adhered  (see  p.  12)  to  the  still  remaining  deter- 
mination to  insist  on  that  necessity, — and  was 
compelled   to  state  this  frankly  (see  p.    12)   to 


42 

avoid  the  imputation  of  ignoring  a  sub-com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  Council,  I  am  accused 
of  unq;enerously  violating  the  golden  and  in- 
estimable rule  of  letting  by-gones  be  by-gones. 
But  the  by-gones  had  not  commenced  !  If  Mr. 
Charles  Flower  will  express  his  regret  for  the 
pain  that  was  inflicted  on  Mr.  Tyndall  by  the 
suspension  of  his  salary,  or  even  if  he  will 
admit  that  it  was  an  act  of  inadvertence  through 
which  no  reflection  upon  that  gentleman  was 
contemplated,  then,  indeed,  I  will  consider  the 
librarianship  dispute  finally  disposed  of. 

There  is  a  point  referred  to  at  the  commence- 
ment of  Mr.  Charles  Flower's  speech  which,  in 
justice  to  him,  should  be  particularly  mentioned, 
for  it  explains  to  some  extent  his  idea  that  I 
was  unnecessarily  raking  up  by-gones.  It  ap- 
pears, from  the  commencement  of  that  speech, 
that  my  letter  of  the  22nd  Sept.  (pp.  ii,  12) 
had  never  been  brought  before  his  notice.  That 
this  could  have  been  the  case  never  occurred  to 
me.  It  was  an  official  letter  on  official  subjects, 
addressed  to  the  Mayor  in  his  official  capacity, 
and  it  referred  to  matters  under  the  cognizance 
of  the  Town  Council  and  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, of  both  of  which  bodies  Mr.  Charles 
Flower  is  an  active  member.  I  may,  perhaps, 
have  been  somewhat  too  precipitate  in  assuming 
that  it  would  have  been  understood  that  my 


43 

attempt  to  secure  a  reparation  for  the  suspension 
of  the  Hbrarian  salary  was  by  no  means  aban- 
doned ;  but  I  took  the  earliest  legitimate  oppor- 
tunity in  my  power  of  declaring  that  it  was  not. 
In  another  part  of  his  speech  Mr.  Charles 
Flower  observes  that  I  have  chosen  to  restrict 
my  remarks  to  his  own  share  in  the  matter, 
because,  "  he  presumed,  he  (that  is,  I)  found  it 
more  convenient  to  attack  an  individual  than  a 
whole  Committee."  These  words  are  calculated 
to  convey  an  erroneous  impression.  As  I  stated 
in  a  postscript  to  my  letter  of  May  the  4th 
(see  p.  40),  I  was  not  aware  at  the  time 
that  Mr.  Charles  Flower  was  the  only  mem- 
ber of  the  Committee  present  when  the 
suspension  of  the  librarian's  salary  was  ordered. 
Believing-  for  lono-  afterwards  that  it  was  the 
action  of  the  Committee,  I  rt'z^  remonstrate  with 
the  Committee,  and  in  terms  which  some  of  its 
members  considered  too  vigorous.  See  my 
explanation  of  this  at  p.  34.  Now,  however, 
knowing  that  Mr.  Charles  Flower  was  the  sole 
representative  of  the  Committee  on  that  occa- 
sion, and  that  the  rest,  as  a  body,  had  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  suspension,  it  would 
have  been  a  mere  piece  of  impertinence  on  my 
part  if  I  had  attempted  to  involve  the  Committee 
in  the  responsibility. 


45 


VERY    IRREGULAR    INDEED. 

The  reader's  attention  is  now  particularly 
directed  to  the  following  paragraphs  in  Mr. 
Charles  Flower's  speech, — 

It  appeared  that  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  took  exception 
to  the  word  "  irregular,"  which  he  quoted  from  some  county- 
paper  as  having  been  appHed  to  his  proceedings.  He 
had  referred  to  the  reports  in  the  Herald  and  Chrotiicle, 
and  he  found  that  no  such  word  or  anything  hke  it  was 
used  by  him,  for  the  very  good  reason  that  he  did  not  use 
such  a  word.  He  did  not  use  it  for  the  very  good  reason  that 
he  knew  nothing  of  those  proceedings  to  which  Mr.  HalHwell- 
PhiUipps  alluded  until  he  read  them  from  his  pamphlet.  It  was 
usual  when  any  gentleman  had  reason  to  feel  himself  aggrieved 
at  words  reported  in  a  paper  to  have  been  spoken  by  another  to 
inquire,  in  the  tirst  place,  if  the  report  was  correct.  Mr. 
Phillipps  had  not  applied  to  him,  but  Mr.  Phillipps  had  made 
other  inquiries,  and  he  knew,  and  knew  before  he  sent  that 
pamphlet,  that  he  (Mr.  Flower)  did  not  use  any  such  expression. 
Yet  he  deliberately  applied  quoting  from  some  county  paper 
expressions  knowing  that  he  (Mr.  Flowerj  did  not  use  them, 
because,  if  he  had  adhered  to  the  exact  facts,  he  would  have 
been  prevented  from  using  that  fine  egotistical  flourish  on  the 
word    "  irregular." 

These  words  include  a  grave  charge  against 
me,  and  should  not  have  been  uttered  if  the 
speaker  could  not  have  substantiated  them. 
So   far   from   the   latter  being  the  case,   I   now 


46 

proceed  to  refute  the  charge,  and  that  on  the 
clearest  evidence. 

It  is  well  known  that  conductors  of  news- 
papers very  seldom  give  complete  verbatim 
reports  of  everything  that  is  said  at  public  meet- 
ings. They  may  be  said  never  to  do  so  when, 
as  was  the  case  at  the  meeting  held  on  Nov.  9th, 
there  was  a  desultory  conversation.  Wishing, 
therefore,  to  know,  as  far  as  possible,  everything 
that  was  said,  I  applied  for  the  short-hand  notes 
of  the  reporters  engaged  by  The  Chronicle  and 
The  Herald,  receiving,  however,  only  those  of 
the  former.  The  Chronicle  reporter  informed 
me  that  his  notes  were  not  a  verbatim  report, 
and  that  the  report  given  in  The  Herald  was 
also  a  condensed  one  is  clear  from  the  fact  that 
there  are  a  considerable  number  of  speeches 
found  in  The  Chronicles  short-hand  notes  which 
do  not  appear  in  the  report  given  in  The  Herald. 

It  is,  therefore,  perfectly  clear  that  there  was 
no  evidence  before  me  which  excluded  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  use  of  the  word  irregular. 


47 


A     VARIATION. 

At  the  same  time  I  feel,  on  reflection,  that  I 
ought  to  have  communicated  with  Mr.  Charles 
Flower  on  the  subject  of  the  objectionable  word, 
and,  if  he  had  restricted  himself  to  a  denial 
of  the  use  of  the  word,  I  should  at  once 
have  expressed  my  regret  for  the  inadvertence, 
and  cancelled  the  portion  of  the  pamphlet 
that  refers  to  it.  But  so  far  from  taking 
any  step  of  the  kind,  Mr.  Charles  Flower 
returns  to  the  attack  with  redoubled  severity, 
and  virtually  owns  that  he  regrets  not  having 
used  a  stronger  term.  Under  these  circum- 
stances I  may  be  pardoned  for  retaining  my 
observations  on  what  was,  according  to  what 
he  now  says,  but  the  milder  expression  of  his 
original  sentiment.  The  earliest  intimation  that 
I  had  of  the  enlarged  nature  of  his  attack  upon 
me  was  on  the  receipt  of  a  county  paper  that 
arrived  on  December  the  6th,  and  which  occa- 
sioned the  transmission  of  the  following  letter 
on  the  next  day, — 

HoUingbury  Copse, 

Brighton,  7th  Dec,  1883. 
Sir,— 

A  copy  of  a  Birmingham  paper,  containing  a  report  of  your 

recent  speech  at    Stratford-on-Avon,  has  just  been    sent   here, 


48 

and  is  the  earliest  intimation  I  have  had  of  the  remarks  upon 
me  which  you  have  thought  proper  to  make.  Reserving  my 
notice  of  the  inaccurate  versions  of  my  conduct  in  the  hbrarian- 
ship  and  copyright  matters,  it  is  only  necessary  at  present  to 
call  your  serious  attention  to  the  following  observations  which 
you  are  reported  to  have  made  in  reference  to  my  late  proceed- 
ings on  the  "  records."  ''  Possibly,"  you  say,  "  his  conscience 
had  told  him  that  irregular  was  a  very  mild  word  to  be  applied 
to  hib  proceedings,"  and  you  shortly  afterwards  proceed  to 
obseive  that  "  a  much  stronger  word,"  that  is,  a  much  stronger 
word  than  irregular,  "  might  be  applied  to  those  proceedings." 

This  kind  of  language,  especially  after  the  explicit  account 
of  the  whole  matter  given  in  the  pamphlet  you  were  criticizing, 
is,  to  use  the  gentlest  terms,  so  peculiarly  discourteous,  that  I 
can  only  trust  that  some  oversight  has  been  committed  in  the 
report.  It  is,  at  all  events,  only  right  to  give  you  the  opportunity 
of  explanation,  and  requesting  an  early  reply. 
I  have  the  honour  to  be.  Sir, 

Your  obedient  humble  Servant, 

J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillipps. 

To  Charles  E.  Flower,  Esq. 

P.S.—  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  this  letter,  as  well  as 
any  reply  that  may  be  made  to  it,  will  be  subject  to  publication. 

To  this  letter  I  have  received  the  following 
reply  : — 

Avonbank, 

Stratford-on-Avon, 

December  8th,  1883. 
Sir, — 

As  you  did  not  think  fit  to  answer  my  letter  of  Dec.  ist, 
which  was  couched  in  the  terms  of  that  friendship  which  I 
supposed  had  hitherto  existed  between  us,  I  don't  think  that  I 
am  called  upon  to  answer  yours  of  yesterday,  which  is  written 
in  a  very  different  tone. 

At  the  same  time,  as  you  ask  me  whether  the  words  which 


49 

you  quote  from  a  Birmingham  paper  were  those  used  by  me  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Town  Council,  I  beg  to  say  that  they  are 
substantially  correct,  and  I  am  quite  prepared  to  abide  by  them. 
As  you  speak  of  publishing  the  correspondence,  no  doubt 
you  will  think  it  right  to  include  my  letter  of  Dec.  ist. 

I  am,  Sir, 

Yours  faithfully, 

Charles  E.  Flower. 
J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillipps,  Esq..  LL.D. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  I  comply 
with  the  suggestion  made  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  last  letter.  The  communication  of  the  ist 
of  December  is  here  given. 

Avonbank, 

Stratford-on-Avon, 
Dec.  1st,  1883. 
Dear  Sir, 

'^n  reading  the  pamph'et  you  have  forwarded  to  me,  I  am 
amazed  to  learn,  for  the  first  time,  that  there  is  a  quarrel  between 
us,  and  that  there  is  a  difficulty  in  your  meeting  the  sub-com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  Corporation  because  I  am  a  member 
of  it. 

This  accounts  for  what  I  supposed  was  accidental,  my  not 
having  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  when  you  were  in  Stratford, 
which  I  much  regretted,  as  I  wished  to  consult  you  on  some 
Shakespearean  matters  of  mutual  interest  and  also  to  disabuse 
your  mind  of  the  idea  that  the  Birth-place  Committee  had 
behaved  with  any  discourtesy  to  your  friend,  Mr.  Tyndall  I 
was  not,  however,  aware  that  you  fixed  this  upon  me  personally. 

I  now  think  it  was  most  unfortunate  that  the  Committee  con- 
sented, at  your  urgent  request,  to  let  liic  unfortunate  Tyndall  affair 
drop,  and  that  they  did  not  insist  ujjon  bringing  the  whole  matter 
before  the  Trustees  at  their  last  meeting,  when  1  feci  suk;  tliai  the 
Trustees  would  liavc  seen  the  matter  in  a  dilfLMenl  !ii;iit  hdiii  what 
you  appear  to  do  upon  only  a  partial  knowledge  of  what  took  place. 

D 


50 

I  can  distinctly  assert  that  there  never  was  on  my  part  (or  on 
the  part  of  any  of  the  Committee')  the  slightest  intention  to  treat 
that  gentleman  uncourteously,  and  that  his  nervous  temperament 
and  vivid  imagination  has  caused  him  to  misconstrue  matters 
and  to  present  them  to  you  in  a  most  distorted  form.  How- 
ever, when,  at  your  request,  the  Trustees  agreed  to  let  the 
subject  drop,  I  presumed  that  byegones  were  to  be  considered  as 
byegones,  and  that,  as  the  matter  was  not  to  be  discussed  fully 
and  openly,  we  were  not  at  liberty  to  do  anything  more  to  vindi- 
cate ourselves  from  the  very  harsh  ex  parte  statements  which 
you  and  others  had  made,  I  am,  therefore,  very  much  pained 
that  you  should  have  re-opened  the  matter  in  the  way  you  have 
now  done. 

It  appears  to  me  from  the  further  contents  of  your  pamphlet 
that  you  are  under  the  impression  that  I  desire  to  oppose  your 
wishes  as  to  the  autotyping  the  records.  Nothing  can  be 
further  from  the  fact  ;  and,  if  you  had  been  present  at  the 
meeting  — of  which  of  course  only  a  very  condensed  report 
would  appear  in  a  newspaper — you  would  have  known  that  the 
subject  received  my  hearty  support,  and  that  then,  as  always.  I 
most  thoroughly  appreciated  what  you  have  and  are  doing. 

Although  I  am  very  much  interested  in  the  subject  (not,  as 
you  suppose,  with  an  entirely  new  interest),  I  shall  at  once 
withdraw  from  the  sub-committee  of  the  Corporation,  and  so 
avoid  being  the  cause  of  there  being  any  difficulty  in  your 
working  with — not  under — that  Committee,  which  was  appointed 
to  assist  you.  At  the  same  time,  I  trust  that  we  may  have  an 
early  opportunity  of  meeting,  in  order  that  any  present  misun- 
derstanding, such  as  I  now  learn  exists,  may  be  cleared  up. 

At  any  rate,  I  can  assure  you  that  my  interest  in  Shake- 
spearean matters  would  always  induce  me  to  give  my  support 
to  your  action,  even  if  I  did  not  (as  I  most  certainly  do)  fully 
appreciate  your  personal  exertions  and  sacrifices  in  the  work  of 
elucidating  all  tha-  relates  to  his  life. 

I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Yours  faithfully, 

Charles  E.  Flower. 
J.  O.  Hallivvell-Phillipps,  Esq. 


51 

This  letter,  it  will  be  owned,  is  couched  in 
the  most  polite  terms,  and,  if  no  disturbance 
had  intervened,  would  have  been  acknowledged 
in  the  course  of  a  few  days  in  languaoje  that 
would  have  been  at  least  equally  courteous.  It 
was  posted  at  Stratford  on  the  ist  inst.,  and 
reached  me  at  Brighton  on  Monday  morning, 
the  3rd  inst.  There  were  remarks  in  it  that 
required  deliberate  consideration,  but  I  was  not 
even  favored  with  the  grace  of  an  intermission 
of  one  day's  post,  Mr.  Charles  Flower  opening 
fire  upon  me  on  the  veiy  next  inorning,  Tuesday, 
the  4th  inst.  Mr.  Charles  Flower  complains  of 
my  letter  of  the  7th  inst.  having  been  written 
in  a  very  different  tone  from  that  of  his  of  the 
ist  inst.,  but  what  other  could  he  possibly  have 
expected  after  the  appearance  of  the  speech  he 
delivered  on  the  4th  inst. 

The  letter  of  December  ist  perplexed  me 
very  seriously.  Passing  by  the  opening  para- 
graph, the  subject  of  which  has  been  elsewhere 
noticed  (see  p.  42),  in  the  first  place,  if  concili- 
ation had  been  intended,  I  was  puzzled  at  the 
letter  containing  no  repudiation  of  the  word 
irregular,  at  the  use  of  which  every  reader  of 
my  pamphlet  must  have  seen  that  1  was,  as  I 
am  now,  naturally  indignant.  There  was  no 
allusion  in  it  to  that  word  in  any  way,  and  no 


52 

denial  of  its  use.  In  the  second  place,  there 
was  the  strange  announcement  that  the  Trustees 
had  consented  to  let  the  Librarian  dispute  drop 
at  my  request,  a  mistaken  statement  which  it 
would  have  taken  me  some  time,  as  it  has 
since,  to  investigate.  In  the  third  place 
there  was  no  reference  to  the  suspension-of- 
salary  business  ;  so  that  altogether  a  somewhat 
elaborate  answer  was  requisite.  I  was,  however, 
on  the  point  of  replying,  in  as  friendly  a  tone 
as  could  possibly,  under  the  circumstances,  have 
been  adopted,  when  the  appearance  of  the 
speech  of  the  4th  inst.  of  course  at  once  changed 
the  aspect  of  affairs,  and  put  to  flight  the  notion 
of  present  "  friendship."  It  was  a  new  expe- 
rience to  me  to  find  a  species  of  the  latter  which 
could  be  so  exceedingly  polite  on  a  Saturday, 
and  then,  no  provocation  having  intervened, 
could  be  so  exceedingly  the  reverse  on  the  fol- 
lowing Tuesday. 


53 


THE    COPYRIGHT    QUESTION. 

Here  are  another  couple  of  charges  agahist 
me  !  Upon  my  word,  I  am  really  beginning  to 
think  that  I  shall  never  get  to  the  end  of  them. 

Mr.  Charles  Flower  thought  a  stronger  word  th m  ifrci^itlar 
might  be  applied  to  those  (that  is,  my)  proceedings  especially 
if,  as  he  understood,  Mr.  Phillipps  had  allowed  the  photographer 
to  retain  the  negatives,  and  register  the  copyright  in  his  own 
name. 

I.  Mr.  Phillipps  had  alloived  the  photo- 
grapher to  retain  the  negatives,  — Oi  course  I 
had.  The  diminutive  negatives  taken  in  the 
first  instance  are  of  no  practical  use  until  they 
are  enlarged.  They  have  no  doubt  a  negative 
value,  but,  unless  I  had  sent  for  the  beadle  or 
the  police  to  take  them  to  the  lock-up,  I  do  not 
know  any  other  course  that  could  have  been 
adopted. 

II.  Mr.    Phillipps   had    allowed   the   photo- 
grapher  to    register   the   copyright    m  his  oivn 
name.— AW  that  I  have  got  to  say  to  this  is  that 
I   have  never  had  any  communication  whatever 
with  the  photographer  upon  the  subject. 


55 


RED-TAPE    AMENITIES. 

In  the  course  of  his  speech,  Mr.  Charles 
Flower  observed  that  "he  did  not  use"  the 
word  ir7'eotila7'  "  for  the  very  good  reason  that 
"  he  knew  nothing  of  those  proceedings  to 
"which  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  alluded  until  he 
"  read  them  from  his  pamphlet."  The  speaker's 
memory  must  anyhow  here  have  sadly  deserted 
him.  It  is  recorded,  in  The  Het aid's  printed 
report  of  the  meeting  of  November  the  9th, 
that  "  Mr.  Councillor  Flower  said  he  understood 
"something  had  been  done; — certain  docu- 
"  ments  had  been  removed  and  photographed." 
The  same  words  occur  in  the  shorthand  notes 
taken  on  behalf  of  The  Chronicle. 

We  are  now  arriving  at  the  last  scene  of  this 
"  strange  eventful  history."  In  the  following 
words  Mr.  Charles  Flower  frames  what  he 
evidently  considers  to  be  a  very  serious  and 
formidable  indictment, — 

Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  had  drawn  very  largely  on  his 
imagination,  and  possibly  his  conscience  might  have  told  him 
that  iiregulurw'^'i  the  milde:^t  term  that  could  have  been  ai)i)licd 
to  those  proceedings.  He  was  not  aware — he  did  not  think  any 
member  (jf  that  Council   was  aware- before  reading  that  |)am- 


56 

phlet  that  fourteen  most  valuable  documents  had  been  removed 
from  the  record-room  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Mayor,  or 
any  member  of  the  Corporation,  or  even  of  the  Town  Clerk. 
He  thought  a  stronger  word  than  irregular  might  be  applied  to 
those  proceedings. 

These  words  are  clearly  liable  to  the  inter- 
pretation that  my  recent  proceeclinns  have  par- 
taken somewhat  of  a  surreptitious  character. 
Now,  although  I  can  afford  to  treat  such  in- 
sinuations with  contempt,  it  is  none  the  less 
deplorable  that  any  member  of  the  Town 
Council  should  have  had  the  bad  taste  to  utter 
them.  I  have  already  explained  (see  p.  19) 
that  for  years  and  years,  and  until  Mr.  Charles 
Flower  has  of  late  commenced  to  take  such  an 
absorbing  interest  in  the  records,  I  have  had  a 
prescriptive  and  hitherto  unchallenged  right  to 
consult  them  at  my  own  discretion.  It  never 
occurred  to  me  that  the  recent  proceedings 
were  of  so  very  distinct  a  character  that 
they  necessitated  a  special  application  to  the 
officials,  for  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  in 
the  exceptional  position  I  had  so  long  occupied 
in  respect  to  the  records,  I  was  as  much  respon- 
sible to  the  Corporation  and  to  public  opinion 
for  their  safety  as  any  official  could  possibly 
be.  So  far  from  considering  it  necessary, 
under  the  circumstances,  to  apply  to  the  Town- 


57 

Clerk  or  to  the  Mayor,  I  should  as  soon 
have  thought  of  engaging  the  public  crier 
to  screech  out  what  was  going  on,  or  of 
asking  the  town  -  band  to  greet  my  arrival 
at  the  railway  station  with  the  inspiriting  air 
of, — "  See  the  autotyping  hero  comes  !  "  The 
whole  affair  is  a  lesson  to  people  not  to  attempt 
good  work  when  there  is  red-tape  about.  Mr. 
Charles  Flower's  onslaught  is,  at  present,  all  I 
have  o'ot  by  going  down  to  Stratford  to  carry  out 
the  wishes  of  the  Corporation,  and  by  making 
myself,  day  after  day,  a  pendulum  between  the 
Birth- Place  and  Ivy  Cottage,  to  the  great  satis- 
faction of  the  boys  in  the  Rother  Market,  who 
were  evidently  under  the  impression  that  there 
was  a  wager  ahead  on  the  interesting  question 
of  the  number  of  times  I  could  walk  to  and  fro 
during  the  six  hours  allotted  to  my  daily  task. 

Yes  ! — to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  Corpo- 
ration. The  impartial  reader,  who  will  refer 
(see  p.  15)  to  what  took  place  at  the  Council 
held  in  March,  and  will  carefully  bear  in  mind 
that,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  no  Juriher  discus- 
sio7i  on  the  records  had  taken  place  at  any  of  the 
Council  meetings,  then  he  or  she  must  perforce 
admit  that  I  was  not  only  carrying  out  the 
wishes  of  the  Council,  but  doing  so  in  a  manner 
that  involved  infinitely  less  risk  to  the  records 


58 

than  if  I  had  followed  the  line  of  proceedings 
they  had  themselves  suggested  and  authorised. 
I  am  the  last  person  in  the  world  either  to  treat 
the  wishes  of  the  Committee  with  disrespect  or 
to  intentionally  disobey  any  of  their  orders.  If 
my  recent  action  had  been  taken  after,  instead 
of  befo7'e,  the  promulgation  of  their  last  order 
on  the  subject,  then,  indeed,  I  should  have 
been  seriously  to  blame. 

I  contend,  therefore,  that  no  irregularity 
whatever  has  been  committed  ;  but  even  if  there 
had  been,  the  most  pronounced  red-tapist  must 
admit  that  a  desirable  work  has  been  done,  and 
that  in  the  most  careful  manner.  Under  these 
circumstances,  one  would  have  thought  that  the 
veriest  scintillation  of  good  feeling  would  have 
protected  an  old  and  tried  honorary  servant  of 
the  Corporation  from  the  language  of  insult. 


nsroTzcE. 

Three  words  are  accidentally  omitted  in  the 
report  of  Mr.  Charles  Flower's  speech  at  p.  29, 
but  they  will  be  found  correctly  given  in  the  ex- 
tract from  that  speech  at  p.  45. 


i 


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